***MoonRT***
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Dong-hae's departure was the result of an internal investigation by Do-yun himself into the company's financial books, after an anonymous tip.
He received some data from a delivery driver.
It had everything to be suspicious, but in addition to a delicious meal, he received the indigestion of seeing that almost all of the company's data had been changed in recent years and this almost gave him a heart attack.
Investigate and investigate, the kid was very good at not leaving any traces, but where there was money, there were expenses and there were signs of it.
Donghae was also not the type of man who would stay quiet with a fortune, he would spend it on cars and jewelry.
He loved buying expensive watches and clothes.
It was a waste of money.
It doesn't matter and with some effort Donyun managed to track a strange movement of money to numerous foreign accounts and they all led to a single person: Kim Dong-hae.
It was a shock, he was the son he had in mind as the most suitable for business, but what's the point of being suitable and not being obedient?!
He was just a mad dog who would cause more and more problems.
When the matter became public, everything had already been discussed with the people with the largest shares of control in the company.
The decision was unanimous: immediate dismissal.
End.
There is no discussion, what are we going to talk about? The stupid son's ability to steal from his own family?!
The son he had raised with everything that was best! The son he taught to be the best in everything!
It was also the idiot son who was stealing from him.
Doyun could not hide the feeling of frustration and sadness he had inside himself and the sadness of seeing that the only son who had been interested in the family business was actually only interested in stealing from him.
You want so much money?! Then work! Do the job better than anyone else has ever done!
Lose sleepless nights and stop loving your wife!
The old man was already in his 70s and his retirement had been planned for a long time and all that was missing was the announcement, so seeing that his vacation in the Maldives had to be canceled made him very angry. Very.
Even so, it was still a great stroke of luck to discover so many problems while he was still active in his own company.
All thanks to an anonymous tip... Anonymous... Who could believe that?!
Anyway. It doesn't matter.
He was very aware that everything could be even worse if he were now retired while the chaos is only growing and growing like a huge snowball.
The chaos could be even worse if he happened to step down and the whole circus continued.
Doyun didn't even like to imagine what the family's assets would be like if Donghae definitively took over all the family's affairs.
Obviously, the news of his resignation was already circulating among the employees.
But the press?! They had been trying to confirm the information for days and looking for something extra;
Like vultures on rotten flesh.
The company cafeteria was already extremely busy, as usual, it was the place where people from the most diverse sectors of the company could meet and talk about the little that had happened during work hours.
It was not a quiet place, far from it, there were many voices, full of excited voices, that afternoon was not much different.
The one who was in trouble was Donghae and not them.
Of course, there would be those people who would be constantly anxious about whether they could keep their jobs, it was obvious that the company would go through a restructuring and there was already a lot of talk about who could be Donghae's great replacement.
But today was a special day, lunch had a different flavor... The gossip... The big gossip involving the boss who had left through the back door with handcuffs on his wrist.
The big difference was that the reason for all the gossip involved the boss... Ex-boss?
The TV was off, what else could they do besides talk?!
Amidst the various employees, there were others and others, none of them stood out, but the subject was always the same.
"I heard that the vice president is going to be investigated for embezzlement... Can you believe it?"
The one who was next to him and listened to everything very attentively felt a little strange, how could this be possible?! The boy was so handsome.
She would give anything for her oldest daughter to have any chance of marrying someone like him.
She widened her eyes in astonishment. "The handsome guy with the tattoos?"
It was no exaggeration that Donghae looked more like a mafioso, but he was handsome and always wore expensive clothes, and he also undoubtedly wore the best perfumes.
Wherever he went, it was as if he left an olfactory trail. The man was powerful in every sense.
The woman, who couldn't hide her astonishment, almost spat all the food out of her mouth... A little disgusting.
So make an effort and pull yourself together.
Grab a paper towel and gently wipe your mouth, forgetting what the others were saying around the table, it no longer mattered anymore, they had changed the subject and were now thinking about going out for a drink after work.
Silently, she thought about Donghae's appearance.
She clearly had Donghae's masculine and athletic appearance in her mind! He was an unforgettable man, the kind you would want to have for yourself.
She definitely wanted him for herself.
A hottie!
Donghae always wore tight formal clothes that strongly marked his muscles, there were definitely a lot of muscles and there was no way to say that he was not a strong man. Tall and strong.
Very strong.
Well. Although gossip strengthens the individual, it could also be his downfall... I still want a salary at the end of the month!
No matter how many theories you create and how many times you blame someone else.
So who could guarantee that they would still have their jobs at the end of the month?!
Yes, that could be considered a crisis.
The cafeteria continued to be heated.
Some could only laugh at the situation and others were already thinking about which companies they should send their letters of recommendation and resumes to.
Some voices still clashed when the cafeteria fell silent at times. "... A criminal."
No one would dare to agree or deny, just keep eating your food and go back to talking about other things.
Or at least don't accuse anyone.
That man is still the son of the person who pays your salary at the end of the month.
A woman approached another random man who was on the other side of the table and whispered cautiously, "Who do you think will take over the companies? Mr. Kim seems to be close to retirement. "
The man shrugged, there was no way of knowing.
All he knew was that his children were not interested in business, so it would be difficult to find a capable success.
The man looked thoughtful, he didn't know how to answer, but he had some suspicions regarding an old rumor, but since he had never heard it more than once or twice he never thought it was true.
"He seems to have another child, but she barely graduated from college..."
No matter how much everyone created hypotheses and had a thousand thoughts, only Kim Do-yun knew what he would decide.
It was no secret that Do-yun was a man with many children and all of them seemed very successful in their respective fields. The man adopted four children before he could have his first biological daughter: Kim Eun-ji.
"Rich people have complicated problems. "
Another person across the table simply nodded. "Yes."
Yes, they did.
Not far away, amidst the deliveries and confusion fueled by cigarettes and whiskey, was the company's top brass.
The people with the largest shares, the biggest owners, were present and completely angry at just watching their money decline without being able to do anything.
After all, what could they do?! Cry?!
The heated meeting was taking place almost like a small show in a slum, but there was no fun or debauchery.
Only chaos and problems.
Some were more drunk and others were nervous, lighting one cigarette after another without caring much that the place was forbidden to smoke. Open the windows if you are bothered.
Kim Do-yun ordered an urgent meeting to be held together with the other shareholders, he himself was holding a whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other. He couldn't even remember the last time he had smoked.
Everyone there felt uneasy about what was happening and everything would only get worse. Chaos. It was chaos.
Some there depended entirely on that damned company that had everything to declare bankruptcy.
Others believed in Doyun's ability to solve problems; he could always solve anything.
One of the people sitting there with the others in the midst of the chaos had been told that the entire story had not only already been leaked, but would be on the front page of the newspaper and would be in the main newspapers that night.
What can we do when something like this is happening?!
A woman, slightly claustrophobic, ran to the window and threw it open, and half a couple of people watched her.
She laughed. "I could be jumping and you wouldn't care."
Another man just laughed. "I'd appreciate it if you did that, it would give us more money..."
The woman reluctantly sighed a little in the fresh air.
The closed windows didn't help at all when almost twenty people were in the same room and at least half of them were smoking cigarettes or cigars.
"This is no time to feel sorry for you or me, let's just decide how to solve this shit... You throwing yourself in is just one less person to decide what we have to do here."
The phone rang. The main phone rang and not everyone had that number besides the people involved in high places.
The silence was desperate and frightening... All that could be heard was the ringing of the phone.
Doyun answered and put it on speaker for everyone to hear.
"Good afternoon everybody..."
"Eunji... I thought you arrived, where are you?!" Doyun asked as he took a drag on the cigar he had in his hands.
Eunji was in no hurry, quite the opposite, if you stayed silent for more than a mere ten seconds you could hear the faint buzzing.
She looked like she was in a tattoo parlor.
But that would go unnoticed, it's not like the people there cared about that, they didn't care about anything other than the money running out of their accounts like dirt going down the drain.
"I just wanted to make a stop first... I have some things to talk to everyone here, so I hope you'll listen to me carefully."
They didn't want to listen to a kid who had just graduated from college with a degree in economics. Honestly, how could they?! But they were on the verge of bankruptcy overnight, was there anything they could do?
A loud sigh was heard.
Eunji smiled victoriously, a laugh that in other circumstances could sound extremely sexy.
She loved having everything the way she wanted and how she wanted it.
"I'll accept silence as a positive... But I have conditions, the first is that I can prevent the scandal from being televised, it seems that other people have done worse things than Donghae... So I can ask them to put it as a small headline or downplay it to a hotter news story... I know you don't mind the idea of having inside information, so get rid of anything that could incriminate you or make you his accomplices..."
A man who was at the edge of the table listened to that with a certain relief and despair. There's no way of knowing how that was possible, but that was exactly what he felt at that moment.
Relief for knowing that he could destroy everything that put him together with Donghae and despair for knowing that he would lose a lot of money in the process.
"What do you want in return?"
"Isn't it simple? I want 100% of the company, I want to control everything and I want you not to be able to do anything important... Maybe I can keep 95, that's enough for now... Tomorrow when the market is devaluing our company, I want you to sell it to me and willingly accept the money I have to offer..."
Doyun heard that and laughed compulsively, his daughter could be as crazy as anyone else he could have met.
Maybe it really was a family thing.
"Honey, who doesn't have anything to do with Donghae? Do you really think they're going to sell their part of the company?"
Eunji asked the woman who was tattooing her to stop for a moment and tried to get a better position. She wanted to see the scars being covered by roses full of thorns. "Then that's not my problem, but I still want to have more than 50%, you guys should decide who is willing to continue on this sinking ship and accept me as president." Doyun, whose face was red, was starting to get drunker than he would like to admit, so he just asked a simple question. "Who said you're going to be president?" Eunji smiled, touched the blood that was gently dripping down his back and asked for a paper so he could wipe his hands. "You have no choice, either you put me in the presidency or I finish sinking the company." Kim Do-yun ran his hand over his face as a way to calm himself down. In vain. He was getting more and more irritated, anyone who looked at him would easily notice his red eyes, he was completely angry. "What Dong-hae did was destroy my entire legacy…"
Throw the glass of whiskey away and watch it shatter into a thousand pieces.
"I don't have all the time in the world, as soon as I decide what I'm doing I should go straight to the company and I hope to find you all decided on what you want to do… I also need to ask my journalist friend to leak the news to lessen the scandal… Involving your sandcastle, Dad… Just one hour…"
The phone hung up and those who were previously calm now didn't know if they should take advantage of the open window and really throw themselves through it.
Maybe it wouldn't be a very painful death, right?! Shit.
"Doyun, what the hell did you do to raise such disgusting children? One is worse than the other."
Doyun heard that, wiped his face, he had a few drops of sweat spread across his face. He smiled. His daughter could be a lot of things, but not disgusting. "She just knows how to do business..."
Eunji, who was not far from the company, had managed to move her trip up to an earlier flight.
There was something she had always wanted to do.
Honestly, it was torture, she was getting a huge tattoo and all in just one session, so it was like running a marathon.
This marked the beginning of the new woman she should be in the future.
It doesn't matter if now I have to be a scentless rose with so many thorns that no one dares to touch.
It seems that her destiny wasn't very pretty from the beginning, so now she had to work hard from start to finish trying to be the best.
"I'm exhausted..." The tattoo artist said, touching her shoulders as she tried to gently ease the tension she was feeling. The session had started at 4 in the morning and it was already much later than 4 in the afternoon. In fact, it was already night.
"... Aren't you hungry? You also didn't complain about being tired or in pain... Is everything okay?"
Eunji nodded. She was fine.
"It's nothing, it will always hurt and I will always be tired. I can solve my hunger later by eating something... Some things need to be a priority." The tattoo artist, who didn't understand the reason for so much obstinacy, just accepted it quietly, she was being paid to do a tattoo and not to ask questions.
"I think the white touch-ups are better in a second session... Are you sure you want to do everything now?" Eunji just nodded. She wanted it finished today, it might hurt, honestly that was the least of it.
History was being made at that moment and that tattoo would cover the marks of the past. "Yes, even if it doesn't turn out perfect in the future, for me it will be perfect, that's how it had to be in the end... Some things are made perfect and life makes them imperfect... It's almost like it's poetic."
The tattoo artist didn't like the fact that the works she did could at some point be imperfect... But Eunji paid enough to have total confidentiality, so they even signed a contract... The one who would like something or not would be her and only her, only her.
"Okay, then let's finish, in half an hour we should have everything ready." Eunji smiled a little more satisfied and just went back to her starting position, the hardest part had already been done, so she just had to keep quiet while she waited for everything to be over.
She had gotten into the habit of listening to the radio, wherever she went, she would tune in to the first station and listen to everything people had to say. At that moment she was listening to a priest's sermon and she could only feel really funny.
Maybe she would catch fire if she went into a church. Who knows.
Let's ignore the fact that the priest sold faith and God as an object, but if you ignore all that and think about the essence of what little he said that was decency, he seemed very confident that good times were coming.
He seemed to be hopeful.
Deuteronomy 31:8: "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."
Where must this god be? Laughing at me while I was being taken to the hospital? Or holding the hands of the drunk doctors so they wouldn't finish killing me?!
"Do you believe in God?" Eunji asked the tattoo artist.
She had just been intrigued by the subject and she was a little tired of all that shouting in her ears, that man talked too much and had already exhausted her in less than ten minutes.
The woman thought for a moment and sighed. "I don't know, it seems weird that everything just happened, right?!"
Eunji nodded. Maybe that was how it was. "I don't believe it... I'm waiting for the day he proves me wrong."
After a few minutes she put on her clothes, it hurt like hell.
She would have to use some painkillers and also need to moisturize her skin a lot if she wanted a decent recovery.
Since she lived alone there was no way of knowing how she would manage that, but for now she just had to take some medicine and pack her things.
She had an appointment that could not be postponed any longer.
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***MoonRT***